New Delhi: Opposition parties against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the RSS should come together and discussions are ongoing on what should be its framework, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Friday after meeting RJD leader Sharad Yadav, whom he described as his “guru”.
Addressing the media at his house with the Congress leader by his side, Yadav said Gandhi should take over as the Congress president.
Asked if the Opposition must come together to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Gandhi said , “Opposition parties that are against the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Narendra Modi should come together. Discussions are ongoing on how they should come together, what should be the framework of it, and that has to be developed.”
On whether Gandhi should become Congress president, Yadav said, “Why not? Rahul Gandhi works for the party 24X7 and I think he should become the president of the party. The Congress should make him president only then something big can happen.”
When Gandhi was asked to comment on the issue, he parried the question, saying, “We will see about that.”
Describing Yadav as his “guru”, Gandhi said Yadav was unwell for a long time, and he was happy to see him “fighting fit” now. “He has taught me a lot about politics,” Gandhi added. Yadav last month merged his Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) with Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
Gandhi said he agrees with him that the country is in a “very bad state” as “hatred” is being spread and the “country is being divided”.
“All of us are facing this challenge. We have to bring the country together, we have to take the country on the path of brotherhood again,” Gandhi said.
“People think that economy is different from the condition of the society. In a country which does not have harmony, hatred will increase, inflation will rise, economy will not flourish and employment will not be generated,” he said.
If we have to strengthen the country then the most important thing is peace and harmony, he added.
The former Congress president alleged that “the BJP people think that by spreading hatred, scaring people and killing them, India’s economy can be strengthened”. “They are under an illusion”.
Gandhi cautioned that India’s economic situation and the state of unemployment is “going to worsen”.
“You cannot imagine that, what is going to come, you would not have seen such a thing in your life. The structure of employment in this country, the spine of this country, has been broken,” he said.
“Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) thinks what South Korea has done, we should also do. He looks at abroad and says ‘we want to be like that’.
“Work cannot be done like that, we have to recognise what we are and what works here. This backbone that they have broken, the result of this will be visible in the next two-three-four years, there will be massive consequences,” Gandhi said.
Asked if the Opposition will field a united candidate in the presidential polls later this year, he refused to comment on it.
On rising prices and debate not being held on it in the Budget Session that concluded on Thursday, Gandhi said, “Nobody can escape reality, in modern politics media is a way to escape reality. For one, two, three years you can suppress reality through media but when that reality reaches the stomach of the youth, their parents then media cannot do anything.”
“Our institutions, BJP leaders, RSS have hidden the truth, now the truth will come out slowly. That has what has happened in Sri Lanka, the truth has come out. In India also truth will come out,” he asserted.
Gandhi said the difference between India and Sri Lanka is that the Indians have also been divided.
“It used to be one country. Now, it has been divided into groups, it has been divided into many small countries….and all of them are made to fight with each other. When this pain will come out, violence will happen. Don’t agree with me now, wait for two-three years,” he said.
Asked why the electoral mandate was not with the Opposition, Gandhi said it was due to the “100 per cent total domination” of the instruments of communication of this country.
Media is 100 per cent controlled, the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate suppress conversations, while other institutions “lock the conversations”, he alleged.
“The loudspeaker is with the government, earlier loudspeaker used to be with the government, with the Opposition…Now no party has the loudspeaker, it is only with the BJP and RSS. When truth will hit people’s stomach, then this loudspeaker will fail,” he said.
Asked about no discussion on the Sino-India border dispute during the Budget Session that concluded on Thursday, Gandhi said the debate on China issue will not take place in Parliament.
Using the anology of the Russia-Ukraine conflict to talk about India’s tensions with China, Gandhi said, “Russia says ‘we do not believe in the territoriality of Ukraine’, we do not agree that Donbass region is part of Ukraine and on that basis, Russia attacked Ukraine. The objective of that attack is that the alliance of US-NATO-Ukraine is broken. The same principle China is applying in India.”
“Like they are saying Luhansk and Donetsk is not yours, China is saying Ladakh and Arunachal is not yours and have stationed their troops there,” he said.
Alleging that the government is not accepting the reality when it comes to China, Gandhi said he is urging it to accept it because “if you don’t accept reality and don’t prepare, when things will worsen, you will not be able to react”.
